Tag Archives: Sachin Tendulkar

Virat Kohli has been deemed an “All Format Great” already by many. He is 27 years old. Few critics would still want to see his longevity and consistency in the longer format of the game before putting him in that league of “All Format Greats” which currently possibly has only one batsman. AB de Villiers. Tendulkar wasn’t a T20 Great mainly because the format gained prominence towards the twilight of his career.

Let’s put aside qualitative comparisons and for a moment, look at what Kohli has achieved in the 50 Over format and put it in perspective to what other Greats of the game have achieved or ended up achieving.

The data set considered is the list of Top 50 ODI batsmen sorted by ODI hundreds and features most of the best names that played this format and mastered it (in Batting).

Let’s start with this metric “Innings per Century”. Kohli scores one ODI century every 6.5 innings. Isn’t that an insane number? Tendulkar took 9.2, Ponting took 12.2, Ganguly 13.6 and Sehwag a whopping 16.3. There are only two players in the World currently, who score hundreds at a faster pace than Kohli – Quinton de Kock (5.7) and Hashim Amla (5.8). I’m sure if we just look at the last 2 years data in isolation, Kohli’s rate would be less than 5 innings per Century. He’s been in that kind of form.

Top Players – sorted by Innings per Century

Centuries per Year, another metric which is a reflection of the century scoring appetite, tells us the same story.

Let’s move on to Batting Averages. While looking at these numbers, I realize how frickin’ awesome a career AB de Villiers too has had. He averages close to 55 and strikes at 100+ and has 24 hundreds. He doesn’t even open the innings for his side. A dedicated ABD post coming up later. Let’s stick to our man, Virat Kohli for now.

He is the only Indian who averages above 50 apart from the legendary MS Dhoni (who has 67 not outs to his credit). Viv Rishards averaged 47, Hayden 44, Dravid 39.

Top players- sorted by Average

Let’s now look at a really interesting view. Numbers stacked up by all players in the duration Kohli has played the game – 2008 till date. Some really interesting observations from the table below.

Top 2 ODI run getters in the last 8 years are Sri Lankans mainly because they’ve played more ODI Cricket than any other country. Sanga and Dilshan have scored 7.5k+ runs each at averages of 48 and 44, which is commendable. de Villiers averages 63.4 in this duration, which means his initial few years in ODI cricket were pretty ordinary, to his standards.

Kohli has scored more hundreds than anyone, in the last 8.5 years. Dhoni averages a staggering 56 in the same duration, a testimony to the fact that he’s been the go to man for India when it comes to ODIs.

ODI numbers for the duration Jan 1, 2008 till date

Let’s move on to absolute centuries scored. God stands tall, right up there with 49. It’s a matter of 30-35 innings before Kohli goes to number 2 in the list with 31 hundreds. The question remains. Will he surpass Sachin Tendulkar to end his career with 50+ ODI hundreds? My hunch says he will surpass Sachin before he turns 34. And if at all that happens, we all know who the happiest man on earth will be.

“I’ll be happy if an Indian breaks my records”.

Top Players – sorted by Hundreds

Next post in the series – Virat Kohli, the Chase Master. Read it here.

21 Apr 00:35 – Srikanth: Accepted that Abd played some scintillating innings that rank along the best

21 Apr 00:36 – Bhaskar NH: Only thing is that Sachin had the longevity

Sachu baby

21 Apr 00:37 – Srikanth: But remember Sachin in Perth when he was only 18 or 19, countless sharjahs, and that 200 was done never before, the situation of that game, the format and the heat! Both had different roles in their teams, so not fair to compare Sachin’s innings with the fastest innings and all…

21 Apr 01:23 – Me: I agree with BJ for once. ABD can play like Sachin. Sachin has not played the kind of knocks ABD has. ABD is an all format great! Sachin hasn’t scored 41 off 10 and would never have

21 Apr 01:27 – Ajak: Sachin would be never have scored 33 off 220 too

21 Apr 01:27 – Me: The fact that he carried on for 24 years (with consistency and class) is unparalleled. In my books, Dhoni, Dravid, Lax, Dada, Sehwag, Ponting, Lara were all great batsmen of their times but Sachu and ABD have the “Gods of the game” status

21 Apr 01:31 – Sibi: Sachin stood the test of time. ABD has to stay like this for few more years.

21 Apr 01:31 – Sibi: Other wise it would be an extended purple patch

21 Apr 01:32 – Srikanth: All said and done, Abd’s fastest 100 and 150 in times with the field restrictions, which is a great advantage, and Sachin was already around 37 I think when he scored the 200. Maybe he didn’t play much in the last 2 years of his career, and also didn’t face the same bowlers that AB thrashed around, but I think he would have thrived even more. Perhaps not the 150 off 60 odd balls, but he didn’t need to play that kind of game, and it was one time innings by Ab,

21 Apr 01:35 – Ajak: 2 times in the space of 1 month. That’s not a 1 time innings. And when you hit 10+ sixes

21 Apr 01:36 – Srikanth: I am not taking anything from AB, but as all say above, given the longevity and pure masterclass, AB is not as great as Sachin

21 Apr 01:38 – Srikanth: In this generation, AB is the best. But Sachin has been the best since the time of Lara, Steve Waugh, Ponting and even when AB started to thrive

21 Apr 06:36 – Hari Haran: Getting run a ball was good enough few years back.. Just because of t20, batsman have become more mature and fearless Also they have more exposure.. Unlike before.. Dhawan has styne bowling in nets.. That’s a good practice for him to play very fast balls.. Dravid used to wet rubber ball and ask his coach to chuck and throw it fast at him.. That’s the was he practice.. So, the exposure level were different before and now. 20 years back, entering into iit means u r great.. Also, u can get into iit with mere 20-30% . topper would be say 50%.. Now with these many coaching classes, topper are scoring 80% .. Now u just cant arrive at conclusion telling this topper of 2015 is best. Fastest 50 in IPL is Yusuf pathan.. That sums up all.. Stats can’t just be compared

IIT

21 Apr 06:48 – Srikanth: Captain Hariharan, pulli vevaram spot on🙏

21 Apr 06:49 – Hari Haran: 🙏🙏

21 Apr 06:54 – Sud: “Pure masterclass” is subjective but I think longevity is the only thing that stands between ab and emulating tendulkar. If ab isn’t pure masterclass, who is? He can play the tank shot over the keeper’s head, reverse sweep for six over third man. If you’re saying he isn’t as pleasing on the eye, take a look at his straight drive in the semis against the kiwis. Also, I don’t think Sachin is capable of playing the 42(233) knock he played against Australia to save a test

21 Apr 06:56 – Hari Haran: Yeah..

21 Apr 06:57 – Sud: And Sachin isn’t capable of playing the 41(11) he got against the Mumbai Indians. Having said that, we have to account for run inflation. Sach was scoring at six an over every match when 200 was par and 250 was a match winning score. Plus he averaged 45. Simply put, he combined the skills it took to play the 42(233) knock and 41(11) knock

21 Apr 06:59 – Hari Haran: Neither sachin nor ponting was part of mi playing 11 .. Tare scores better than both.. But just can’t conclude with this stats. Those two were dropped after few matches

21 Apr 06:59 – Sud: So if ab can play like this for six more years, we will have a winner

21 Apr 07:00 – Hari Haran: He is awesome.. I love AB .. I hate sachin.. Hez selfish. But can’t conclude anything as the generations were different

21 Apr 07:00 – Ajak: AB has pushed the limits of what is possible in limited overs even in this era

21 Apr 07:01 – Sud: Selfish vera. Sachin and ab have one thing in common. In spite of their inhuman talent, they don’t win enough matches for their respective teams. And they aren’t big match players. That’s why I rate ponting, Lara and smith, kohli in this generation higher

21 Apr 07:02 – Hari Haran: KL Rahul scored 100 in Australia in his debut series.. That’s a great task 15 years back.. Not now

21 Apr 07:03 – Sud: Kohli has lot to prove but he has done enough to be considered one of the best in this generation I guess. Ponting is the best. Vera level. Mavaney what a player. Lara too. Australia ah ye azha utaan. And if I had to choose between Lara and Sachin as to who I’d pay to watch on their best days, lara any day. Sheer domination. Ommaley

21 Apr 07:25 – Hari Haran: But can’t conclude. Agreed. But sachin 175 against Australia in a chase of 300+ 🙏🙏 the team just let him down in that match

21 Apr 08:07 – Bhaskar NH: @Sudarshan- I agree whatever u said except the point about Pointing.. Dei, what’s his record in the subcontinent.. Bhajji llam avana uttan da😄😄

Come Sunday, the 22nd of February, Dhoni & Co. would be put to the real test. We’ll get to know if India’s first win on Australian soil (last week against Pak) in three months was really the beginning of something spectacular. Before going to the battle on 22nd, let’s revisit the previous three instances when India and South Africa met in World Cups.

Clash #1: Benson and Hedges World Cup 1992

The match, held at Adelaide Oval was reduced to 30 overs a side due to rain. After putting India to bat, South African bowlers restricted India to 180 for 6, with “White Lightning” Alan Donald striking twice, in 6 overs. Donald dismissed Kris Srikkanth for a duck. It marked the end of Kris Srikkanth’s illustrious World Cup and ODI career (His “seedan” Virender Sehwag would go on to play three World Cups for India). South Africa chased down the target with 5 balls to spare.

India exited in Round 1 while SA would go on till the Semi Finals, when Duckworth and Lewis decided to give them a target of 22 runs to win in 1 ball

Clash #2: ICC World Cup 1999

This match marked the debut of Stalwarts like Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly, among others in World Cups. After Azhar decided to bat first, Dada-Dravid partnership of 130 (Dada – 97 run out Rhodes, Dravid – 54 b Klusener) helped India put up a decent total of 253 in 50 overs. Kallis’ Man of the Match winning 96 and Rhodes’ quick 39 off 31 helped South Africa effect a second consecutive win against India in World Cups.

Rahul Dravid against South Africa in 1999 World Cup

India exited in the Super 6s while SA would go on till semi finals yet again, to choke against the Aussies. That match, in many ways, was the beginning of the rise of Australian cricket. Australian cricket never turned back, for the next 8 years. They would go on to rule the next decade.

Clash #3: ICC World Cup 2011

267 for 1 to 296 all out. Indian middle order never looked so pathetic before or after this match. At one point, it looked like India would reach 350 (at least), before Morkel triggered a collapse in the 40th over with Sachin’s wicket. Dale Steyn ran through India’s middle and lower middle order, picking up 5 wickets. Sachin scored his 99th International Hundred in this match (the 100th hundred would elude him and his fans for a long long time).

#99

A combined batting effort helped South Africa reach the target with two balls to spare. Ashish Nehra was back to form, conceding just 65 runs in 8.4 overs.

What the faf!

Clash #4: Mauka pe Chakka?

South Africa has never looked this world beating coming into a World Cup. Steyn is preserved and fresh. Hashim Amla is scoring centuries for fun. AB de Villiers is in red hot form. They have a bunch of other kids (faf du Plessis, Morkel, among others) who are equally motivated and prepared.

Too many match winners in a single frame!

India, on the other hand, has had a patchy 3 months down under. The win against Pakistan will by no means make India complacent. Dhoni will know that South Africa is the real test. If they can beat this South African team , early on in the tournament, it will be a huge morale boost for the men in blue.

It’s been a year now since Sachin Tendulkar (hereby called Thalaivar in this post) kissed the Cricket pitch goodbye! He has moved on in life, spending time with family, adopting villages, writing an Autobiography, etc. The Nation is yet to move on. He is the nation’s (okay, majority of the nation’s) greatest pride. So when his Autobiography hit the shelves recently, it was only natural that his countrymen and cricket lovers world-wide expected it be as awesome as his batting. A lot has been written about the book already. I will reserve my comments for a later day. Today, I list down 4 Life Lessons that stand out in Thalaivar’s “Playing It My Way”

Do your duty, everything else will fall in place

To put it bluntly, Thalaivar is just another human being like you and me, who went about doing his duty diligently, day in and day out. When he failed, he practiced hard. When he succeeded, he practiced harder. It’s amazing how just by doing his duty (along with some God given talent), he is literally worshipped by millions of people.

If you deserve something, you’ll get it somehow; today or 20 years later

Imagine. Thalaivar had to see the likes of Andrew Symonds and Brad Hogg lift the World Cup before him having got the chance to do so. Throughout the book, Thalaivar describes the painful journey of working so hard to win the coveted World Cup and failing five times, in succession. It all comes down to the clichéd phrase, “Quitters Never Win, Winners Never Quit”.

Music heals

If there’s anything apart from Cricket that Thalaivar mentions in “Playing It My Way”, it’s music and food. Music is a great healer. It’s a man’s best friend when he is dejected/disappointed. It helps channelize your emotions and concentrate harder. No wonder a lot of sportsmen (including the likes of Thala Rahul Dravid) take to music to improve concentration levels.

Be grateful to your teachers, family and God

Ramakant Achrekar would have been a proud teacher just to see his pupil (Thalaivar) excel in International Cricket, let alone Thalaivar crediting a major chunk of his success to Achrekar Sir. Thalaivar (mentions in his book) never fails to pay a visit to his teacher Achrekar Sir, his aunt (who played a major part in his early years as a budding cricketer) and two local temples, every single time he leaves India for an away series. Such a simple life lesson – be grateful to your teachers, family and God!

Here’s wishing everyone a great 2014 to look forward to. It’s that time of the year to make the to-do list for first week of January (talking about New Year resolutions, here :P)

I believe in looking only at positive aspects of life. 2013 had a lot to offer, that way. On a personal level, the journey at IIM Shillong which began last year (2012) has been a memorable one in 2013. Hoping to make the most of the next 3 months there and forge bonds that’ll last a lifetime (and also get a job :P).

2013 also saw a part of our childhood go away when Sachin Tendulkar decided that Cricket is fit only for mortals. But glad that his absence from the side hasn’t made a great difference, thanks to some awesome talent coming up.

Thala Sachin

I spent the last day of 2013 helping my grand dad clean his room. In the process, I found some blasts from my own past which made me pause for a moment and cherish those good old childhood days.

Also went to Elliot’s beach with school friends Vignesh and MP in the evening…

MP (Soan papdi thalayan), Vignesh and I…

“Happy 2014.. I hv a feeling its gonna be the best year of ur life. Start making it so already:):) bless u with power inspiration n courage..” – Shreya Ghoshal